Oscar-nominated director R. J. Cutler explores the pop culture icon’s public and private life.
Netflix (3)
You may think you knowMartha Stewart, but you don’t know anything yet.
Despite praising the docs first half, Stewart hasexpressed her dissatisfactionwith some of Cutlers editorial choices.
Martha Stewart is the subject of Netflix’s documentary ‘Martha’.Credit:Netflix (3)
It was not that important, Stewart toldThe New York Times.
“The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life.
I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth.
Martha Stewart and her husband, Andrew Stewart.Martha Stewart/Courtesy of Netflix
His film unequivocally takes the stance that Stewart was railroaded, and did little if nothing wrong.
Here are the six juiciest bombshells we learned fromMartha.
He was very polite and handsome.
Martha Stewart.Netflix
And he had traveled a lot, she recalled of her first impression during a dinner date.
It was exciting to meet a sophisticated young man.
By the end of dinner, I was madly in love.
From left: Alexis Stewart, Martha Stewart.Netflix
The two courted briefly before Andrew proposed.
It seemed such a natural thing to do, Stewart says in the doc.
Fall in love, get married.
Martha Stewart.Courtesy of Netflix
But her father had different feelings about the romance.
I went home and told my dad, and my dad slapped me, she recalls.
He slapped me hard on my face, and said, No, youre not marrying him.
From left: Martha Stewart, Alexis Stewart.Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
But Stewart defied her fathers hatred.
I said, Im going to get married no matter what you think.
Her mother helped her craft a handmade wedding dress, and she and Andrew wed in 1961.
Martha Stewart on March 17, 2005.DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty
The wedding day was very happy, she says.
It was the beginning of my life.
Andrew stayed behind in the hotel room while she trekked to a cathedral.
He didnt have any interest in going to the Duomo with me, she says.
Stewart was enamored by her visit.
One person in particular caught her eye a man similarly exploring the cathedral alone.
I met this very handsome guy.
He didnt know I was married.
I was this waif of a girl hanging out in the cathedral on Easter Eve.
He was emotional, I was emotional.
It was just because it was an emotional place.
It was unlike anything I had ever experienced…
It was like nothing I had ever done before.
And so why not kiss a stranger?
Reflecting on the incident now, she calls it neither naughty nor unfaithful.
It was just emotional, of the moment.
Thats how I looked at it, she explained.
I wish we could all experience such an evening.”
Back then, everybody was having babies so young.
That was sort of the style and the habit, Stewart explains.
It was no secret to Stewarts loved ones that she struggled with the transition to parenthood.
It was hard for her to adapt to being a mom, Tatlock observes.
She was happy when Lexi went down to nap so that she could be on her own.
She took care of Lexi, but she didnt dote on her.
She was always a little bit chilly.
Lexi got caught in the middle of it, she continued.
She was so confused and so angry herself.
I grew up in a very uncomfortable house.
Ive learned to suppress most of my emotions, Alexis tells Cutler flatly and emotionlessly.
We were loved sort of obtusely when we were supposed to be loved, Stewart said of her childhood.
[Andrew] was not satisfied at home, she recalls.
An offscreen interviewer interjects: Didnt you have an affair early on in the relationship?
Oh, yeah, Stewart blithely replies, but I dont think Andy knew about that.
Yet the interviewer reveals that she did confess her infidelity to Andrew, a fact that surprises Stewart.
Andrew recalled the deceit in his own interview with the crew.
Oh, thats not true, Stewart says.
I dont think… she trails off.
But she contends that she “would have never broken up a marriage for it.
Then, after a long pause, Stewart adds, It was like the kiss in the cathedral.
The trouble began in 2001 after she sold several shares of ImClone Systems stock shortly before its value plummeted.
Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison with two years probation and a $30,000 fine.
My daughter, she fainted when they read the verdict.
Poor child, Stewart says over an animated scene of Alexis in the courthouse.
It was so horrifying and incomprehensible, Alexis recalls in the doc.
And then I woke up, and I was unfortunately still there.”
Stewart didnt mince words when dissecting her conviction 20 years later.
Those prosecutors shouldve been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high.
Shes dead now, thank goodness, Stewart says unsparingly.
Guards are unarmed and wear inconspicuous street clothing as opposed to uniforms.
Despite the relatively easygoing conditions, Alderson was hardly a safe place.
People were jumped…beaten.
Stuff like that happened [to others].
But I was not protected."
Stewart recalls one rather bizarre circumstance indicative of Aldersons unusual approach to incarceration.
In her prison diary, Stewart recounted the unexpectedly extreme fallout.
Nonetheless, the prison staff saw fit to punish Stewart in the harshest manner.
I was dragged into solitary for touching an officer, she says.No food or water for a day.
This was Camp Cupcake, remember?
That was the nickname.
It was not a cupcake.
Near the end of the film, Stewart reflects on the time surrounding her conviction and incarceration.
I dont think Ive been the mean and nasty and horrible person portrayed in certain publications.
Im strict and Im demanding and Im all those good things that make a successful person,she says.
Earlier in the documentary, the interviewer asks Stewart what she dislikes.
Marthais streaming on Netflix.
